Topic: All Aboard

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:27 EST
Three days passed with much busy work on the part of Captain Marshall, and much talk on the part of Sir Walter Harville, but finally the appointed hour for boarding the steam paddle-boat down the coast to the mouths of the Amazon came. Sir Walter insisted on escorting Lady Eleanor and Alexander Finley to the dock, to see them safely aboard and - in his words - to see for himself the scoundrel she was entrusting her life to. He didn't, of course, help with the bags, and complained of having to walk all that way as well, but Eleanor steadfastly ignored her cousin, quite content to carry the one suitcase she had packed for the journey ahead of her.

"....and another thing, Eleanor," Walter was saying as they reached the gangplank. "I don't believe it is necessary for you to go to all this trouble. Dead or alive, your father is in no position to give his blessing to our marriage."

It was probably a good thing that Captain Marshall did not overhear Walter's remark or he might have made a rude remark of his own regarding the man's intentions toward his cousin, though it was really none of his business. He could be seen nearby, though, chatting with another man and seemingly making sure everything and everyone was accounted for. He glanced up momentarily to find Lady Howard had arrived, accompanied by two men who he presumed to be her father's lawyer and her cousin. He paused a moment to have a final word with the man before making his way toward her, with a polite smile on his face.

"Hello again," he greeted her, glancing from one man to the other, as if debating which was which. "We are just making the final inventory before boarding. I trust you have everything you need?"

"No, sir, she does not," Sir Walter declared, without giving Eleanor a chance to respond for herself. "Expecting a lady to travel without at least a maid is intolerable, and I -"

"Captain Marshall, is it?" the other man interrupted, setting his bag down to offer Jay a hand. He spoke with a warm Scottish drawl. "Alexander Finley. A pleasure to meet you, sir."

Jay might have had an answer for that insinuation if he had not been sidetracked by Finley's introduction. He offered the man a hand, the polite but guarded smile back on his face. "Likewise, Mr. Finley. I take it you are going along?"

"Yes, sir, I am," Finley assured him in a robust tone. "The lady's word is not considered binding enough in law, so I thought to come and lend my own word to hers on what we find."

"And there is no need for this ridiculous -" Sir Walter began, but this time Eleanor interrupted him.

"Walter, the decision has already been made," she said, but there was a submissive quality to the way she spoke that suggested this steel backbone of hers was a relatively new development in her personality. "Can you not simply wish us well on our journey' Oh, do excuse me ....Captain Marshall, this is Sir Walter Harville, my cousin. Walter, Captain Marshall."

The lordling looked Jay over disdainfully. "Not so much the scoundrel, then," he deigned to concede. "Mr. Marshall, if my fiancee is not returned to me in the condition I leave her in your care, you will find yourself up to the eyes in every kind of legal difficulty."

Instead of looking insulted, Jay actually looked amused, not only by the man's presumption that he and his cousin were already engaged, but that the long arm of the law might actually extend so far as to actually care what happened in British Guyana. "I'm sorry, it was my understanding that you and the lady are not yet engaged. Am I mistaken?" he asked, with a straight face.

Sir Walter blustered, drawing himself up. He was a portly sort of fellow, young but definitely spoiled by rich food and high-mindedness. "We have an understanding, sir," he said officiously.

Behind him, Eleanor rolled her eyes, bending to pick up her suitcase once again. "Walter, we really should be getting on board. Captain Marshall?"

"I assure you, Sir Walter, that I will do my utmost to keep your cousin safe. Now, if you will excuse me," Jay said, with a courteous nod of his head before turning on a heel to accompany Eleanor her lawyer toward the ship.

Unfortunately, the amount of bluster this produced was not quite enough for Eleanor to make it onto the gangplank. "Ah, Eleanor, my dove?"

She stopped, swallowing down an obvious sigh as she turned. "Yes, cousin?"

Walter bent down to her. "A kiss to see you on your way?"

She hesitated, glancing back at Finley and Jay, but knew she couldn't get away without giving Walter this, at least. Setting her suitcase back down, she rose onto her toes and kissed his cheek, quick to skip back out of arms' reach and retrieve her case. "Goodbye, Walter!"

But her hand would come up empty as Jay had made his way back to fetch her case, lifting it with apparent ease as he awaited her to make her final farewells to her cousin. "Goodbye, Sir Walter," he nearly echoed, unable to hide the smirk from his face. Let the man think him a scoundrel; he didn't really care. "Lady Howard," he said, gesturing with his free hand for her to take her leave.

Startled to find her case in Jay's hand, Eleanor's smile was no doubt something like salt in a wound for her cousin to see, given as it was to the captain. "Thank you, Captain Marshall."

"Safe journey, Eleanor darling!" Walter called from the dock as they made their way up the gangplank. "Captain Marshall, I shall hold you personally responsible for any harm that comes to her!"

"Aye, if he hasn't caught syphilis from one of his whores here in the docks before then," Alexander Finley muttered, too low for Eleanor to hear, but definitely loud enough for Jay's ears.

Jay snorted at Finley's remark, unsure if it was an accusation or merely the man's wry sense of humor. Either way, he neither confirmed nor denied, finding the accusation beneath him. If Finley had done his homework, then he knew Jay was an honorable man and a man of his word, even if he had fallen a little from grace. Jay only clenched his jaw, more irritated by Sir Walter than by Finley, though he wasn't sure why.

"Please ignore Sir Walter's posturings, captain," Eleanor begged softly. "He is, I assure you, all mouth and no trousers." She flushed a little as Finley chortled at her turn of phrase.

"Ah, now, that's the Ellie I remember," Finley declared cheerfully. "Have we berths aboard here, Captain Marshall" I'll take the lady's case myself and get settled in."

"I cannot blame him for being concerned," Jay told her, though he had a feeling Sir Walter's concern about Eleanor's safety had more to do with money than affection. "Yes, of course," he replied in response to Finley's question. He waved over to a blond-haired man who seemed to be looking over a manifest of some sort. "Crawford! Show Mr. Finley to his quarters, will you?" he asked, revealing the fact that he'd spared no expense in acquiring lodging aboard ship.

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:28 EST
"Daresay I'll be back on deck by the time we weigh anchor, or whatever these confounded paddlers do," Finley said cheerfully, setting one case down briefly to shake Crawford's hand before taking it up again to follow the man.

Eleanor glanced back down at the dock, where her cousin was still watching them suspiciously. "Would you give me a tour of the deck, Captain Marshall?" she asked politely, though it was obvious she wanted to be out from under Sir Walter's eyes.

Jay followed her glance to find her cousin still watching them from the dock, resisting the urge to wave. "Gladly," he replied to her request, offering an arm in a gentlemanly manner, unlike a few days before when he'd attempted to practically drag her from the saloon for her own good. "Perhaps he should have come along, if he is so concerned."

"Thank you." Smiling as much in relief as pleasure, Eleanor wrapped her small hands about Jay's elbow as he drew her out of sight. "Walter would never risk himself in such a venture," she said quietly. "He has too high an opinion of his looks to tempt fate by being too long away from a mirror."

"His looks?" Jay echoed, brows arching upwards dubiously. "I'm sorry to say he didn't strike me so much as being vain as selfish." And cowardly, but he didn't bother to mention that. After all, he didn't know her very well, and whether she was fond of Walter or not, he was her cousin.

"Oh, he is that as well," she agreed. "Didn't you know, captain" The whole world was created so that Walter Harville could have everything he ever wanted with the minimum of effort." She flashed him a surprisingly sweet smile as her words ended. Had she been anyone else, he might almost be able to believe she was teasing him.

"He seems quite determined to make you his bride," he said, though she already seemed to have refuted that. He thought any man who made her his wife would be a lucky man, indeed, but not only because of her money.

"Captain Marshall, I have never given my cousin the slightest cause to believe I will ever agree to marry him," Eleanor said quite firmly, determined to have that understood from the start. "This idea is entirely of his own making, and when I am utterly secure, I will make it perfectly clear to him in no uncertain terms. Until then ....Well, so long as I say nothing that could be interpreted as an agreement, he cannot sue me for breach of contract."

"Perhaps you should tell him sooner rather than later so there are no misunderstandings," he suggested, though she hardly had time to tell her cousin now when they were about due to cast off.

"As long as his father holds my father's estate in trust, I am in no position to do that," she confessed with a sigh. "I am not so heartless as to string him along, captain, surely you can see that. I could not do such a thing and still be true to myself."

"And if we do not find your father?" he asked, or proof of her father's demise. What then" Would she be forced to marry her cousin just to survive"

She looked troubled. "I suppose, in such a situation ....I would have to find myself a trade of some kind," she admitted thoughtfully. "A way to support myself, to live without owing my support to anyone who would seek to make use of me in such a self-serving manner."

"Well, in any case, you do not need to worry about that yet," he assured her, offering a small smile and a pat of her hand, not to pacify her, but to reassure her.

"But you are right to warn me that I may have to," she answered, with a decided nod. "Perhaps I shall remain out there, and become the explorer my father always wanted to be, in such a case." She flickered a whimsical glance up at him. "Eleanor Howard, adventuress."

"Perhaps," he said, with a faintly amused smile. He wasn't so sure she'd be able to accomplish that - not alone anyway - but he saw no point in telling her so. At least, she wasn't feeling defeated yet and thinking marriage was her only recourse, especially to a man she didn't seem inclined to marry. "Were you and your father close?" he asked, as the strolled along the deck.

"When I was a child, yes," she told him easily enough. "He taught me to ride, and to shoot; encouraged me to take an interest in the world around me. I was ten years old when the war broke out, and he took command of a cavalry regiment. I'm sure you recall what happened to them. The man who came home was not the father I remembered, and he left for these shores a year later. I haven't seen him in five years. I think ..." She hesitated, her expression uncertain. "I think he was trying to escape the horrors he witnessed, to keep us safe from them somehow by being absent."

He frowned a little at her mention of the war and her father's part in it. Who hadn't been touched in some way by that tragedy' He had his own story to tell where that was concerned, but he wasn't very inclined to tell it. He could certainly relate to her father's desire to escape the horrors of war whatever way he could. Unlike her father, though, he'd had no wife or child to leave behind. "Yes, I know what happened to them," he said. "War is not a pleasant thing to witness, Miss Howard, as I'm sure you must know. It changes people, not always for the better."

"So I have come to learn, Captain Marshall," she said quietly. "But for the sake of my mother, who died without ever knowing what happened to the man she loved, and for the sake of the man my father would have wanted to remain, I must know what happened to him."

"Of course, and we will do our best to find out," he assured her using the plural pronoun to include them both, rather than just referring to himself. They were in this together, after all, though she was paying him to lead the expedition.

"Thank you." She paused, turning to press both her hands about his arm, looking up at him with honest gratitude. "Truly, Captain Marshall. Thank you for agreeing to help me do this."

He didn't think it was so magnanimous of him really when she was paying him a fairly generous salary, but he had been under no obligation to agree to her offer either. "I couldn't very well let some scoundrel lead the expedition, could I?" he said, the hint of a smirk on hs lips.

She laughed at that; a delicate sound, perhaps, but the action lit up her face as she tossed her head prettily in mirth. "Ah, so you admit that you are not a scoundrel, then," she answered, and this time there was a definite tease in her look and in her voice. "My virtue is evidently not in such danger as certain people would like to think." There was a pause, a blush, and she added, "Pity."

He was about to say something when she added that last part, and he chuckled instead, presuming she was teasing or perhaps even flirting. "What kind of man would I be, Miss Howard, if I took advantage of a lady such as yourself?" he countered. It wasn't that he wasn't interested or didn't find her attractive - quite the contrary, in fact - but they seemed to be from two entirely different worlds.

Still smiling, Eleanor squeezed his arm once again, resuming their turn about the deck as the hands began to draw in the gangplanks and make ready to sail. "Well, I assure you that, despite our first impression, I feel very safe with you, captain," she promised him warmly. "I feel sure you will not allow anything untoward to happen to me."

He came to a stop mid-deck and turned to face her, a warm smile on his face. "I assure you I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, but you must promise to do everything I tell you. The saloon is no place for a lady, nor is the jungle, I'm afraid."

She held his gaze with open honesty, offering him perhaps more trust than he had earned as yet. "I am not so foolish as to think I know what is to come, captain," she assured him. "Nor am I so foolish as to expect to take a suitcase into the jungle. I will be guided by you, I swear it. I cannot promise to do it without complaint, though ....I am unused to sleeping on the ground."

"We will try to make you as comfortable as possible, but I'm afraid there are few luxuries in the jungle," he said. It went without saying that there would be no modern conveniences of any kind, including toilets. "You'll have a tent, at least, which will offer you a little privacy, as well as some shelter from the elements."

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:28 EST
"I have read extensively on the subject of traveling through jungle," she told him. "I believe I know what to expect in terms of hardship. I simply do not know exactly what to expect of this journey. Will we meet savages?"

"Savages, no, I don't think so, though I suppose it all depends on how deep we go into the jungle. I am hoping we will find someone in Manaus who knows what happened to your father or who can lead us in the right direction," he told her. "I believe we are about to cast off," he said, reaching for her arm again so that he could lead her toward the railing to have a look at the view.

"Wild animals, then," she countered curiously, following him to the railing. Her eyes deliberately did not look down at the dock, but rather toward the bow of the steamer and the line of coast it would be following for the next three days. "Will we be eaten by tigers?"

"Good lord, I hope not!" he said with a bit of a chuckle. "But just in case, we will have weapons," he added, teasing her a little. One would have to be mad to even consider venturing into the jungle without being properly prepared, and that meant carrying weapons.

"I trust they are not sword and shield," she teased him in return, feeling more comfortable in his presence the longer they shared words. The steamer let out a blast from her whistle as the deck lurched ....they were underway.

"No, I think we have advanced a little since the Crusades," he pointed out, with another teasing smirk. He, too, was feeling more comfortable in her presence and less tongue-tied than he'd been at first. What did one talk about with a woman like her"

"Your chosen men seem very capable, captain," she complimented him then, her hands folded on the rail in front of her as the dock began to skim by. "I should very much like it if we could all share the evening meal while we are aboard. I feel it is important that we begin to know one another before we are pushed into the isolation of the jungle, do you not agree?"

He would have to hire more men before they ventured into the jungle, but those he had brought along with him were those he knew and trusted most. She might even recognize a few of them from the saloon. "I suppose that could be arranged," he admitted. After all, they all had to eat, and they were going to have to get acquainted with each other sooner or later.

She glanced a little shyly at him. "If it is a concern of class divides that makes you reluctant, I will happily come and eat in second with your men," she assured him. "I'm sure Alex would, as well. He has fervent opinions on the sorts of people who travel first class."

Jay frowned thoughtfully. Was she really so naive or was she just too nice" Maybe both. "Miss Howard, a lady like yourself ..." He trailed off. She did not belong in second class anymore than she belonged in a saloon or a tent or the jungle. "Let me speak with the captain and see what we can do." The captain of the ship, that was - not himself.

"Captain Marshall, in a matter of days we shall all be traveling in far closer quarters, and I have no fear for any loss of reputation aboard this ship," she said calmly. "I would rather have these people look down on me than be considered somehow separate and breakable by the men you have hired to travel with us."

"Very well," he said, offering no further argument. "I will see what I can do," he repeated, wondering if the men he'd brought along would be impressed by her desire to actually meet them.

"Thank you." Pleased to have won this minor butting of heads, Eleanor accepted her triumph graciously with nothing more than a smile, and turned her eyes once again to the coastline as the steamer pulled out of the harbor to begin her journey down to the mouths of the Amazon.

A journey by boat anywhere was not the most exciting way to travel, though thankfully this would only be for a few days. Indeed, the most excitement came in the evening gatherings, especially that first evening. Despite plying to the ship's captain, permission was not granted for the entire party to visit the first class dining room, and so the second class dining room was a little shocked by the arrival of Lady Eleanor Howard and Mr. Alexander Finley, dressed for dinner and apparently not at all concerned at being out of their natural environment, moving between the tables to join Captain Marshall and his team. Undoubtedly the impression Eleanor gave them was certainly that of a lady in her beaded gown and heels, her brown hair caught up in a chignon and accented by a simple ribbon, but she was there. Finley, in his black and white dinner suit, seemed only a little out of place by comparison.

"Ah, Captain Marshall," the Scotsman declared, offering a hand to greet Jay once again. "We're not late, are we?"

Jay was the first to notice the lady's arrival, and the first to move to his feet as a matter of proper etiquette. Whoever he'd been before the war, he at least knew his manners. If he thought it a bit odd to pack formal wear for an expedition into the jungle, he didn't say so. He reached for Finley's hand to return the man's greeting. "Not at all. I believe you've met everyone."

"Aye, I believe I have." The lawyer smiled his amiable smile as he nodded to the other men, biting down on his amusement at the discreet attempts to smooth hair and clothing at the sight of Lady Eleanor in her evening dress.

As for Eleanor herself, she was smiling as she moved toward the table. "I'm so glad we have not kept you waiting, gentlemen." She gestured to the gown and Finley's suit. "Perhaps it was silly to dress up, but old habits do die hard, and I doubt I shall have much opportunity to look pretty in the weeks ahead of us."

"I'm sure you'd look pretty if you were wearing a potato sack, miss," one of the men remarked, amid a rumble of murmured agreement while Jay moved past Finley to pull out a chair, seating her between himself and her lawyer.

"Forgive them, Lady Howard. They're not used to ladies such as yourself," he apologized for his men, though it wasn't really necessary.

"Thank you, captain." Eleanor's smile didn't even flicker at the unstudied compliment from the man as she sat down. "I should think you would have to search long and hard for a lady wearing a potato sack, Mr. Jenkins," she added with a sweeter inflection in her voice.

"Aye, she hasn't worn one of those since she was a wee girl," Alex Finley added as he took a seat. "She didn't look so bonny in it, I assure you."

"Was it during a potato sack race?" Jay asked, in an attempt to make polite conversation. He couldn't think of any other reason why she would want to wear a potato sack, whether she was a child or not.

"Oh, good grief, no," Eleanor informed him. "I gave my clothes to another little girl who was wearing the sack because it looked more comfortable. My mother was furious."

"That was very generous of you," Jay said with a warm smile, knowing not everyone of privilege - child or no - would bother to do such a thing.

"Where did you manage to change?" another man asked, merely curious.

"I was five years old, Mr. Harrington," Eleanor told him with an impish smile. "In the middle of the lane, of course."

Next to her, Finley snorted with laughter. As the ripple of amusement rounded the table while the stewards brought out the first course, she flickered a warm smile toward Jay.

"Well now, Captain Marshall, here I am in the second class dining room and the world has not ended," she said teasingly. "However shall you bear the disappointment?"

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:28 EST
"Why should I be disappointed, Miss Howard?" Jay asked. "I only hope you do not find the second class fare disappointing, compared to first class," he said, with a teasing smile of his own that was not quite a challenge. "I can imagine you were quite a handful as a youngster," he added, looking to Finley. "Have you been with the family long?"

"Food is food, Captain Marshall," was Eleanor's response, though she was ever so slightly dismayed by the coarser soup she found on her spoon than she was used to. Still, she was determined not to be cowed by food that hadn't be prepared by a high-class chef.

Alex Finley grinned over her head at Jay. "Oh, aye," he nodded. "My father's been the solicitor for the Howards all my life - I grew up with this wee scrapper."

"Indeed?" Jay said, looking from one to the other. Thus far, he had not noticed any romantic attraction between them, though it was entirely possible they were merely good friends. "Is there anything more you can tell us about her father's expedition' I understand he intended to explore. Do you know what he was looking for?"

"His last letter to my father made mention of ruins he'd been told of near the border with Guyana," Finley said easily. "I think it likely he will have wanted to locate them."

"There are a few ruins up there," another of the men at the table commented.

"A few?" Eleanor frowned uncertainly, glancing at Jay. "Will we explore them all, then?"

"This expedition was put together to search for your father, Miss Howard; not to explore ruins," Jay reminded her. "However, I suppose it depends on what we find there," he added, not ruling the possibility out entirely.

"If he did wish to visit these ruins, then surely it would make sense for us to head in that direction, would it not?" she asked, coloring just a little at the implied scolding she thought she heard in his words.

"Yes, of course," he replied frowning a little at her blush. He had not meant to scold her, but this expedition was not an archaeological one so much as that of looking for her father or his remains. "Hopefully, we will be able to find someone who knows where he was going or perhaps even someone who was involved in the expedition," he explained. He had no intentions of going off on a wild goose chase.

"Aye, that would be the best we could hope for, Ellie," Finley pointed out, setting his spoon aside.

She nodded. "I know," the young lady admitted quietly. "I cannot help being a little afraid of what we may or may not find, however."

"There are many dangers in the jungle, Miss Howard," Jay reminded her. "Your father could have become a victim of any one of them, but with luck, someone will know what happened to him." He was trying to be reassuring, but it was difficult under the circumstances, when the man was most likely dead.

"Do you truly believe someone will know what happened to him, Captain Marshall?" she asked him directly. "I do not need to be coddled. If you believe the worst has happened, that he was taken in by unscrupulous guides and abandoned, please tell me."

"I will not lie to you, Miss Howard. It is possible, but someone there knows what happened to your father, and I intend to find out exactly what that was, with or without their help," Jay assured her, sounding as confident as he could. One way or another, they were going to have to find someone who knew where he'd gone and convince them to talk.

"That we will, lass," another man piped up, this one Irish and grinning as he tucked into the main course of their meal that was being set out in front of them. "If you can keep up, that is."

Eleanor raised her brow at the challenge.

"Do you have a problem with the lady accompanying us, O'Malley?" Jay said, turning a scathing gaze on the man. It didn't much matter to him if he was Irish or not; he was in charge of this expedition, and he wasn't going to let anyone else challenge him or his decisions. He then turned to eye each man at the table, save Finley. "If there's anyone who has a problem with this expedition or with me, say so now, and we'll part ways. No hard feelings."

The Irishman rolled his eyes. "No, sir," he said, still in that cheerful manner. "Meaning no offence and all, but if the lady has trouble keeping pace, I'll carry her if she needs it."

Eleanor blushed, hastily lowering her eyes to her plate. Beside her, Alex Finley raised his own brow.

"I've yet to meet the Irishman who can beat a Scot in a fair fight, Mr. O'Malley," he said calmly. "Maybe you should rethink your attitude toward the lady."

"I am sure Miss Howard will be quite capable of keeping up," Jay said, his statement meant mostly for O'Malley, though he once again looked to each man at the table, as if to alleviate any doubts. And if the lady proved she couldn't keep up, they would simply slow their pace.

"Perhaps we should make a wager, Mr. O'Malley," Eleanor suddenly piped up. "The first one of us to slow the pace should pay some kind of forfeit." She ignored the alarmed look on Finley's face beside her, holding the Irishman's eye.

O'Malley's eyes had widened - he clearly hadn't expected to be called out on his attitude, and certainly not by the lady herself.

"What sort of forfeit?" another of the men piped up, curiously. It seemed the mention of a wager had caught their attention more than any reprimand from the Captain might have done.

"The winner chooses the stakes," Eleanor said calmly. She was fairly sure what this man would ask for ....and she wasn't disappointed.

"All right, lass," O'Malley said, coming to his senses. "If you slow us first, I'll have a kiss off you."

"Of course, Mr O'Malley," Eleanor agreed. "And if you slow us first, you'll wear nothing but a potato sack for a full twenty-four hours."

Jay rolled his eyes at the wager, annoyed at the man's choice of stakes. "I'm afraid any kissing or sack wearing will have to wait until we've returned," he said. Was he the only one there who was taking this journey seriously"

Eleanor's cheeks colored again, this time with shame at having risen to the baiting. "My apologies, Captain Marshall," she said softly. "It would appear that you were right to begin with. It was foolish of me to think I could become a part of the group. Do excuse me."

She rose, leaving her meal half-finished, and left the dining room. Finley barely managed to stand up before she was gone, turning a harsh frown onto O'Malley. But he couldn't say anything, not without Jay's permission.

Jay sighed, raising a hand and then dropping it. Somehow, he had to make and keep the peace between their little group or this expedition would fall apart before it had even begun. "Shall I?" he asked, looking to Finley. "Or do you think she would prefer speaking with you?"

"Well, if you've no trouble with me setting Mr. O'Malley here straight on a few matters in your absence, captain ..." Finley's eyes were flinty. His friendship with Eleanor Howard was obviously treasured.

"I have no problem with that, Mr. Finley," Jay assured the man, trusting him to set O'Malley straight on more than a few matters, mostly where they concerned the lady. If it came to fisticuffs, well, he trusted him there, too. "If you will excuse me," he said, dropping his napkin on the table as he moved to his feet, his own dinner hardly touched.

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:29 EST
As he walked away from the table, he was treated to the sound of Alexander Finley speaking in a voice so polite it could have sliced through diamond. "Well now, Mr. O'Malley, let's talk ..."

Out on deck, it soon became clear that Eleanor had not gone far. She had not even made it to the first class deck, instead leaning on the railing to look out over the Pacific. She looked very young, and very alone, under the moonlight.

Jay took the stairs two at a time in pursuit of her, not all that surprised to find her on deck, rather than in first class. "Miss Howard!" he called as he hurried after her. "Eleanor!"

Hearing her name - her first name - called out in a voice that insisted on being proper around her at all times was enough to startle Eleanor out of her thoughts. Her head snapped up, her body half-turning toward the advancing captain, eyes wide in surprise and, yes, pleasure at hearing him say her name. "I am sorry to have disrupted your meal, captain," she apologized again. "I should have listened to you."

"Nonsense. It's not your fault O'Malley is an arse. I should have warned you. He's very good at what he does, but he is a bit crass. I apologize for his poor manners," he said, though she had actually seemed to have been enjoying her verbal sparring with the man.

"It was not my intention to cause discord among the group, or cause you any discomfort," she said softly, the hand she had left on the railing fidgeting over the smooth wood. "I should not have attempted to be more than what I am."

"And what is that?" he asked as he came to stand beside her, watching her in the moonlight. She looked very young suddenly and very innocent - so innocent it almost pained him. She was, of course, lovely, as well, but a little too far above his station for him to hope for anything more than a professional relationship, even if he wanted one.

Her smile was just a little bitter. "Useless," she said, shaking her head as she turned to lean on the railing once again. "Nothing but a privileged girl to anyone who looks at me. It is no wonder your men are uncomfortable in my presence."

"If my men are uncomfortable in your presence, it is only because they have never conversed with a lady such as yourself before. And I sincerely doubt you are useless. I certainly don't find you so," he assured her.

"You are very kind, captain." Eleanor's smile softened, losing the hard edge of bitterness as she glanced up at him. "I will do my best not to slow you down," she promised fervently. "I will not play into Mr. O'Malley's idea of English womanhood, not for all the tea in China."

He was relieved to see her smiling, though he didn't like the thought of her struggling to keep up. "There is nothing wrong with English womanhood, Miss Howard. I happen to be rather fond of English womanhood myself," he said, in a small attempt at humor. No, he was not always so serious, and yes, he did have a sense of humor at times. He even smiled and laughed when the occasion called for it.

Something flickered in her smile, some flash of something so quick he was unlikely to identify it for what it was ....jealousy, of a sort. She liked Jay Marshall very much, but not even she was so naive as to think such a man would be without companionship. With her smile restored, her eyes turned kinder. "You have a sweetheart, Captain Marshall" Back home in England?"

"A sweetheart?" he echoed, brows arching upwards. Of course, she would think that. He should, by all rights, have had a wife and children by now, but for whatever reason, that wasn't the case. "No, I don't have a sweetheart." Not anymore anyway. Was she asking out of mere curiosity or interest"

"Ah, I see. Is there no Mrs. Marshall to miss you in your absence?" Eleanor could only hope he didn't see the way her posture relaxed infinitesimally at the reassurance that he had no sweetheart waiting for him. With luck, he would think her questions mere curiosity.

"No, there is a Miss Marshall, but she's my sister," he admitted, letting a little personal information slip, though it was nothing Finley probably didn't know already. Just how much did the man know and how much had he told her"

"And she's in England?" Eleanor asked curiously. She tilted her head, studying Jay's expression for a moment. "Captain ....I'm sure you must be aware that Alex has looked into your background. He has not, however, told me any of it. He happens to adhere to his profession's practice of confidentiality. Your life and your secrets are your own, unless you choose to share them."

"I'm sorry," he said with an apologetic smile, realizing he was being more than a little aloof. "I don't have any secrets really. I just ..." He sighed. "It's been a long time since I've had a meaningful conversation with anyone," he admitted.

"If it helps at all, I'm not very good at being an empty-headed It Girl myself," she offered quietly. "My father rather spoiled me for marriage to anyone of his class by encouraging my mind."

He couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. "If you don't mind my saying so, I much prefer a woman who speaks her mind than one who merely giggles every time a man looks her way," he confessed.

"I can assure you I have never giggled just because a man looked at me," she promised, but her lips were twitching into a wider smile as she spoke. "Thank you for following me, captain. Again, I do apologize for disrupting your meal."

Jay smiled, his stomach grumbling to remind him that he hadn't touched much of his dinner. "Would it be scandalous of me to accompany you to the First Class dining room?" he asked, fully aware that he wasn't really dressed for it.

"Oh, I'm sure it would be," Eleanor laughed softly. "Perhaps we should both return to the Second Class dining room, and you may escort me back to my cabin afterward. I feel sure that Alex is going to pull out his deck of cards as soon as the meal is finished."

"I'm afraid I left my best suit back in London," he admitted with a slightly sheepish smile. Not to mention his uniform. He offered his arm again, ever the gentleman, despite not being quite as high as her social standing. "Hopefully, there's something left to eat."

"Captain Marshall, I do not care whether you are dressed in black tie for dinner or wearing a potato sack," she informed him. "That I am dressed for dinner is simply a matter of habit, and one I assure you I will leave on the boat when we step down into Manaus."

"I'm afraid you misunderstand my meaning, Lady," the Captain replied, hoping she did not resent his saying so. "If I had brought a suit with me, we could have dined First Class, as is proper." For her, at least. She seemed intent on Second Class, though he didn't really understand why, when the food in First Class was so much more superior.

"It is the manner that makes the man, Captain Marshall, not the clothes he wears or the food he eats," she said gently. "If I thought we could get away with it, I would invite you to dine with me in First Class - yes, and your men, too, if they wanted it. But some of my fellow passengers in those cabins do not have the good manners they should have been born with."

He frowned, privately wondering what those same passengers might think if they knew what horrors their fellow countrymen had endured during the war - countrymen they looked down on merely because of their social status. "We wouldn't want to upset them, would we?" he asked a little sarcastically, not really expecting an answer to his question.

The sharpness in his tone brought her to a halt, a concerned frown on her face. Though she knew he was justified in his bitterness, she also knew that there were some among the first class passengers who had fought for their country, perhaps even alongside him. "A thought occurs, captain," she said hesitantly. "Ordinarily I would not suggest such a thing, but I do not much care for my reputation aboard this ship. Would it be better to purchase a private dining room for the remainder of the voyage?"

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:29 EST
Of course, there were probably those among the First Class passengers who had fought in the war; though he had not said so, he was not referring to them. It was those who always thought they were better than everyone else and that everyone else was beneath them, no matter who they were or what their accomplishments might be. He arched a brow at her suggestion. "I should think a private dining room would be rather expensive," he pointed out.

"I think the expense would be worth it," she countered, raising her chin in that apparent habit of trying to at least seem as though she felt as confident as she sounded. "Unless you would rather draw a line between the majority of the men and myself."

If truth be told, he would have preferred she hadn't come on this expedition at all, but he hadn't quite realized yet just why he felt that way. He worried for her safety - that much was certain - but was it only because he was responsible for her or was it something more" "I did stipulate that you do not question my judgment," he pointed out. "My men are not accustomed to a lady such as yourself. My concern is only for your safety and well-being, Miss Howard."

"Then what is your judgment on this matter, Captain Marshall?" she asked, stung by what seemed a swift return to harsh formality into cooling her own voice as she met his gaze. She, too, was confused by the strangeness of this business relationship; she liked him, liked his manners, and yet there was always a line there that he seemed determined not to let her cross. It was frustrating not to know where that line was drawn.

If she didn't want to know what he thought, then she shouldn't have asked him; and if she was so naive that she didn't understand when her own safety was at risk, then it was up to him to look out for her. And yet, he had chosen the men in his employ for a reason, and whether they were accustomed to a lady in their midst or not, he would have to impress upon them that he would not tolerate any disrespectful behavior. He fell silent a moment as he considered her question. He understood that she wanted to be one of them, but the fact was that she was not. "I will talk to them and impress upon them that I will tolerate no nonsense and no disrespect where you are concerned." It wasn't the fact that she'd made the wager with O'Malley that irked him so much as O'Malley eagerness to goad her on.

Her back stiffened as she absorbed what that meant. "So I am to be nothing more than employer and ....I believe the term is moneybag?" she said sharply. It was, perhaps, unfair of her to be quite so sharp, but she had hoped to at least be allowed to befriend the people she would be traveling with. Apart from Alex Finley, she had no true friends, and this trip was in order to determine once and for all that she was alone in the world. She had never considered that it would also mean she was an outsider to everyone. "Very well, Captain Marshall. I will be silent and obedient, and never make eye contact unless given permission. That would appear to be the correct way to be a woman."

"Miss Howard, I mean no disrespect, but these are men who have quite frankly been through hell. I know them, and I trust them with my life. They are, for the most part, good men, but they are not used to a woman among their ranks. They can be coarse, rude, and unruly. They are likely to say and do things that you may find shocking. As the leader of this expedition, the safety of each and every member of this party is my responsibility. Not only their safety and well-being, but yours. If you wish to get to know them, to befriend them, that is, of course, your business, but please do not forget that this is not a social gathering. We are here for one reason and one reason only - and that is to find out what happened to your father. I am sorry if you do not appreciate what I am saying, but I am only saying it for your benefit. Your safety is of the utmost concern to me. I will do everything in my power to make sure you get home alive and well, and if that means we do not become friends because of it, then so be it," he said, wishing he didn't have to, but she needed to know that he was trying to do what she had hired him to do.

She was silent for a long moment, holding his gaze in spite of the tears that wanted to fall free. She knew when she was being scolded; she also knew that this man was drawing the line very clearly for her. Not liking where it fell was no excuse for poor conduct.

"I understand, Captain Marshall," she said, her tone stiff as she struggled with the awful sense of being rejected simply for being who she was. "You should rejoin your men. Do excuse me, I have a terrible headache." She turned swiftly to leave, not wanting to show him tears. It wasn't entirely his fault she was close to crying; her situation made her emotions a little volatile as it was.

He frowned, hating himself for having to scold her like that and push her away, but she needed to know just where that line was drawn, if for no one's sake but her own. What he really wanted now was a bottle of booze to drown his sorrow, but he needed to keep a clear head. Instead, he turned on a heel and marched himself back to Second Class, the expression on his face enough to warn the man of his foul mood.

"Mr. Finley, a word, if I may," he said, forgetting the fact that he hadn't eaten much dinner. Neither had Miss Howard, but she was in First Class, and that was easily rectified there.

Whatever Alexander Finley had said to O'Malley and the others, it had clearly been recieved in the manner intended, and there were smiles around the table that faded as Jay returned to them. Finley nodded.

"Of course, captain," he agreed, rising to his feet to follow.

Jay didn't wait to see if Finley followed, but turned from the dining room to head back up to the deck where they could, hopefully, have a private word.

The Scottish lawyer pulled a cigarette case from inside his jacket when they reached the deck, offering one to Jay. "I take it you and Ellie had words," he said mildly.

"In a manner of speaking," Jay replied, taking the proffered cigarette with a muttered word of thanks. "I do not think she quite grasps the dangers we might face during this expedition."

"On the contrary, Captain Marshall, I believe she does," Finley told him, lighting his own cigarette and offering over the match to light Jay's as well. "Ellie has been very sheltered all her life, it is true. But have you not considered, captain, that she is alone in the world" She has no siblings, no family who care for her more than for the money due to her. She was never very good at making friends. Perhaps it was clumsy, but this evening was her attempt to find a way to belong to this new group."

Jay frowned as Finley laid it out for him. He laid the match to the cigarette, setting the end glowing and took a quick drag before exhaling the smoke. "That's just it. Don't you see" They are not her friends. I do not mean to be harsh, but she is so far above them, above us. She shouldn't even be here. The jungle is no place for a woman," he grumbled, turning to the sea and leaning his arms against the rail as he puffed on the cigarette.

"And where is her place, then, captain?" Finley asked in a deceptively mild tone, leaning beside the other man on the railing. "Should she be married off to her cousin, be his obedient, silent wife, bear his children, and have nothing of her own in life simply because of the class she was born to?"

"That lout?" Jay said, his tone of voice saying what he thought of her cousin. "No, of course not. But ..." He trailed off a moment, his thoughts his own. "A woman like that ....she deserves to be cared for, adored, loved. Not dragged around the jungle on a wild goose chase," he said, before taking another drag from the cigarette.

"Aye, well ..." Finley took a long drag on his cigarette. "I lost that argument with her in Hampshire. Try having it with her now, and you may end up overboard. She's got a spine of steel, does Ellie Howard. It doesn't show often, but push too far, and she'll push back."

"She likely thinks I agreed to this because of the money," he grumbled further, feeling more comfortable in the company of another man, even if that man was in the employ of the lady in question. "She said you are the one who recommended me. Why?" he asked, looking to Finley with a curious look on his face.

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:30 EST
"Aye, she likely does," Finley agreed. "And I'll tell you now, she does not like being considered only for her fortune. Why else do you think she only has one friend?" He smiled ruefully, glancing at Jay as the question was turned around on him. His smile faded into a look of profound respect and gratitude. "Because you saved my younger brother's life in the trenches," he said quietly. "Bruce died in the last months of the war, but he was full of praise for you, his captain who saved his life too many times to count."

"Finley," Jay murmured, still frowning. "That is why your name is familiar. I remember him, your brother," he said, looking back to the sea, almost as if he could see the man's face swimming before his eyes - as if he could see all of their faces. "He was young." Weren't they all" Just boys forced into becoming men before it was their time.

"Aye, he lied to enlist," Finley nodded. "Fifteen when he enlisted in '16, just before the Great Falling at the Somme." He shook his head. "Father was furious with him for doing it - sent me to the Howard estate to keep me from trying to do the same. Didn't work ....Ellie helped me sneak out during the Christmas celebration to enlist myself after the massacres."

He turned to look at the other man, wondering a little at this unexpected connection between them. "She couldn't have been more than a child," he said, regarding Miss Howard. But then, Finley's brother hadn't been much more than a child either. Jay had not realized that she and Finley were quite that close, and he'd had no idea he'd served with Finley's younger brother. "You haven't told her, have you? About the war?"

"She was almost thirteen when she waved me off," Finley said quietly. He looked down at the waves for a long moment. "How could I tell her?" he answered. "She was just seventeen when I finally got home again. She knew it must have been bad, with the way her father was not coping well with being back among family and friends. I couldn't bear to tell her the details. Perhaps I did wrong in that. She's like a wee sister to me, captain. I wanted to keep her safe from harm."

"You and me both," Jay murmured again, looking back out to sea with a sigh. Well, at least Finley seemed to understand. That was something anyway. "Did you know I have a sister?" he asked, not waiting for an answer. "She must be about the same age as Miss Howard. She hates me being so far from home, but ..." He trailed off, turning quiet again. Perhaps he had more in common with her father than he dared admit.

"You send money home to support her?" Finley asked curiously. "Or is she wedded already? Ellie's only twenty years old, soon to be twenty-one, but that cousin of hers would have married her the moment she turned eighteen if he could. That man is a slug."

"I send money home. She's in Paris right now. She wants to be an artist. Would you believe it?" Jay said, chuckling a little at the idea of it. "That's why we're here, aren't we" To prevent that from happening," he added, with regard to Miss Howard's cousin.

"Aye, that's why I'm here," Finley agreed. "Why are you here, Captain Marshall?" He turned to face the man. "You could have said no. You could have directed her to any number of others in Georgetown. You did not. So tell me truly ....is it just the money, or do you have some feeling for what this journey will mean to her?"

"It's not just the money," Jay replied without hesitation, though it admittedly cost a lot of money to keep his sister living comfortably in Paris. "She seemed determined, and had I not agreed, there's no telling who she might have fallen in with." There were far too many unsavory characters in Georgetown just waiting to take advantage of someone like her.

"You made no real effort to keep her from joining you and your men in second class for dinner," Finley pointed out mildly. "If it truly was your intention to protect her entirely from such people, I think you would have drawn the line harder and sooner."

"She's not an easy woman to say no to," Jay admitted, with another puff of the cigarette. "She's like a child in a way. Innocent, young, naive. I didn't want to hurt her feelings. She seemed to have her heart set on being a part of something, but ..." He blew cigarette smoke out of his mouth with a quiet sigh. "She's too good for them, for us, for me," he said with a shrug and a shake of his head.

"Aye, I'll concede on that point." Finley turned his back on the sea, leaning his elbows on the railing. "I'll ask you to consider this, though ....what is the purpose of a child?"

"To grow up," Jay replied, once more without hesitation. But not just to grow up; it wasn't that simple. "And with any luck, to become a decent human being," he added, though he doubted she'd have much trouble with that. He wasn't so sure about himself.

Finley nodded in agreement. "I'll go you one further, though," he said. "If the purpose of a child is to grow, then the duty of those around them is to guide and protect, aye' Ellie may seem resilient right now, but she's alone in the world, Jay." That use of the first name was quite deliberate, stepping over class boundaries without a second thought. "When this is over, she will either be strong enough to face what comes, thanks to you and your men, or she'll break, because no one took the time to teach her to be strong."

"Ah, but she has you," Jay pointed out, not so much as flinching at the use of the more familiar version of his name - a nickname that had been given him when he'd been a boy and had stuck.

"One friend, who'll have little enough time for her in just a few years?" Finley shook his head. "I'll never abandon her completely, but my father has expectations of me, and I'll fulfill them as I may. I'll take over his practice, his clients; aye, I'll probably marry at some point to continue on the name. Ellie will always have a place with me and mine, but she's a touch too proud to stay where she does not always feel welcome."

"If I didn't know better, I might think you were playing matchmaker. I wonder what Miss Howard would think of that," Jay remarked, with a mixture of amusement and apprehension. Even if he was attracted to her, he believed she deserved far better than him.

The Scotsman snorted with laughter. "I think you'll find that anyone who attempts to matchmake Lady Eleanor Howard is likely to be rebuffed hard, just on principle," he chuckled, shaking his head. "No, Jay, I'm asking you to be her friend, if you can find it in yourself. In a week or so, we'll all be in the jungle, and class distinctions won't mean a fig. Would it not be better to have her comfortable in your company than silent and isolated for the sake of appearances?"

"Yes, of course," Jay replied quickly, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was he didn't want her getting too chummy with his men, but why' Was he merely trying to be protective or was he jealous for some reason' No, that was ridiculous. He was only trying to protect her; it was for her own good, after all. "And here, I thought you were her guardian angel."

Finley snorted again, twisting once more to lean his arms onto the railing as he flicked his dead cigarette away into the water below. "The world's changing, Jay," he pointed out. "Class doesn't mean what it used to. Good men rose in rank in the war, and they're the ones entering Parliament, and making the best out of their lives, bringing their families with them. It's only the old guard of the nobility that are clinging to their class distinctions now - you mark my words; in twenty years, being a baron or a lord won't mean much to the man on the street. Being a good man, a good employer, will mean far more."

"Back home, you mean," Jay remarked. Here, in British Guiana, class didn't matter a fig. It was money that talked here. The more you had of it, the easier life was. But things were changing here, too, albeit slowly. "There's nothing left for me back home," he added. Not even his sister remained in England. There didn't seem much point in going back there. Somewhere inside him, he was still fighting the war; he just didn't realize it yet.

"Maybe not," Finley said quietly. "But there might be something for you out here, if you don't wrap her in cotton and hide her from everything." He flashed Jay a faint grin. "All right, so I'm maybe matchmaking a little. Happen to think you'd be good for each other."

Eleanor Marshall

Date: 2018-07-29 06:30 EST
Jay's brows arched upwards as he looked over at the other man, the last dregs of the cigarette burning away between his fingers. "How do you mean?" he asked. "We are as different as night and day."

"Aye, and what would night be without day?" Finley pointed out with a smile. "What is the moon without the sun" You say a woman like her deserves to be cherished. I say she deserves not to have her heart rejected out of hand just because she was born with a title. A title you don't use, I've noticed. If you can stitch up between you whatever sent you back to second class alone tonight, you may yet have some hope of experiencing what it is to be loved by a woman who has had no one to love for a long time now."

"You missed your calling as a poet, Mr. Finley," Jay said with a smirk, taking one last drag off the cigarette before flicking it into the sea. "Either that or a matchmaker. Possibly both." He looked amused now at least, rather than irritated. "I cannot promise romance, but I will take your advice and try to be her friend. Will that satisfy you, sir?" He didn't bother explaining why he didn't use her formal title, but it had something to do with trying to help her feel like she fit in, at least a little.

"Aye, friendship is what I'm asking of you," Finley agreed with a nod. "I'll not expect a wedding ring unless she wears you down." He winked at the man he already considered to be a new friend of his own. "Just don't put her on a pedestal. She's as flawed as the rest of us, in her own way. And I suppose I'll be visiting her now to fix her mind on the matter as well."

"Good luck with that," Jay said with a further smirk, as he pushed off the railing. He reached over to give Finley's shoulder a squeeze. "Get some rest, Finley. We've got a long trip ahead of us," he advised, dropping the more formal address of Mister. In the war, they had all been his boys, no matter their age or class distinction. It was a hard habit to break.

"Aye, sir, I shall." Finley straightened, glad his advice had not been dismissed out of hand. "You rest, too, sir. You've a weight of cares on your shoulders, but rest easy that I shall make your case to Ellie as best I can."

"Very well," Jay agreed, though he wasn't sure he'd be able to rest as easily as he might wish. The man was right - the responsibility for this expedition and for the safety of each and every member of the team rested on his shoulders, and it was not a responsibility he took lightly. Having a woman along only complicated matters, but he had a feeling she was not the type of woman to be left behind easily. "Good night, Finley," he said, before walking off to find his berth and try to get a few decent hours of sleep.

Finley watched him go, a small smile playing about his lips. Yes, there was definitely more there than a mere desire to keep the lady safe, he was sure of it. Now he just had to try and keep them from snapping at each other because one was a lady and the other a captain. Wouldn't that be a joy?